Poorly equipped air force is equally poorly disciplined

Had it taken off, the French-made plane would have plunged into the populous city of Hsinchu, creating a small inferno burning alive dozens or even hundreds of people.

The near-miss was the third accident the air force had this year. On February 24, an E-2T early warning plane lost a piece of its wing on takeoff. The crew did not know of the loss and went on to fly a mission. That fallen piece was found on the runway at Pingtung Air Force Base. Almost four months later, on June 20, a flying officer was found to have brought forbidden personal belongings into the cockpit of an IDF (indigenous defense fighter), named after President Chiang Ching-kuo. The seat with its ejection mechanism was destroyed.

None of the accidents caused any casualties. No planes were lost. But the three accidents in seven months revealed the fact that discipline in our air force is very lax.

As a matter of fact, any poorly disciplined air force, or any fighting force for that matter, can't fight. Taiwan's air force is already no match for its opposite number in the People's Liberation Army. We used to have air superiority over the Taiwan Strait. We have long since lost it, for we are not adequately armed and equipped. Time was when our fighters shot down all MiG fighters of the PLA air force before, during and after the Quemoy Crisis of August 23, 1958. And we never lost a plane!

Well, that's the reason why Taiwan has been trying to buy F16-D fighters from the United States. The Pentagon has hesitated to sell the highly sophisticated warplanes to us, however.

Perhaps for good reason. The U.S. top brass must have known our poorly equipped air force is equally poorly disciplined. In that case, whatever advanced type of fighters we have would simply end up a mass of scrap iron when hostilities break out between the two sides of the Strait. Of course, no war is likely between Taiwan and China.

One thing the Ministry of National Defense should do is to cancel any purchase of advanced fighter-interceptors from the United States to alleviate the drain on the national coffers. Taiwan is in a dire financial strait. We cannot afford expensive warplanes which are most likely to stay on the ground in time of war.

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